Only a Memory
by CunningWoman
Summary: SiYe Summer 2005 Challenge. I seem to be doing a lot of these, don't I? Ginny is in jail and needs help. What happens when she turns to Harry? And why was she there? Slight serious tones. No spoilers.


Harry was in shock.

It was nine o'clock at night. The phone had rung downstairs. Uncle Vernon had answered it. Uncle Vernon had called Harry downstairs, and grudgingly said that it was for him.

He said the _call_ was for _him_.

"...Well, answer it, boy!" Vernon spat. Harry took the phone out of Vernon's hands. Vernon snarled, and them stomped out of the room.

Harry hesitantly lifted the phone to his ear. The only person who might call him was Hermione... but why? Harry had just received an owl from her this morning...unless something terrible had happened...

That thought brought Harry to his senses and he said the only thing he could think of, which of course was, "Hello?"

"Harry?"

That didn't sound like Hermione. That sounded like, well, Ginny. Why would Ginny call him? He didn't even hang out with her at school, much less during the summer. Like Hermione, she would only call if there was something wrong... oh no! What if the Death Eaters came to the Burrow?

"Harry, speak to me."

Oh yeah. He forgot. Could you blame him? After all, this was only the second phone call of his life...

"Ginny?"

"Harry, I need your help. I'm in a Muggle jail and they wont let me go home. They said I only have one phone call and they want something called bail, and I wouldn't ask you, Harry, but I can't call Mum or Dad because they would flip if they knew I was here-

Her voice was slowly becoming hysterical.

"Ginny calm down. Everything is going to be all right. I'll need to stop by Gringotts before I come get you-

"Gringotts? Why?" Her voice sounded less tense now.

"Ginny, bail is money. Do you know how much they want?"

Ginny whimpered. "500 pounds, I guess, but Harry, I can't use your money! I'm so sorry..."She sounded close to tears. Harry figured it was harder to keep a girl calm than he thought." I'll pay you back, I promise..."

"Ginny, you don't need to pay me back, I've got more than enough..." Harry had no idea how to make her feel better. He knew the money was a much bigger deal for her than for him, but she couldn't just stay there, and he would never have a Weasley pay him back for anything.

"Yes, I will, Harry, and you can't stop me." She said in a firm tone, which was silly, since of course he could stop her, by just not accepting the money...but oh well. She continued in a softer voice, "I really appreciate this, Harry."

"Um, you're welcome? I mean, yes, you're welcome." There was a pause. "I'm going to go, now, Ginny."

"Okay, then." There was another pause.

"Bye."

"Bye, Harry."

Harry walked up to the small Muggle police station in Ottery St. Catchpole and cautiously opened the glass door. A secretary in a blue skirt-suit sitting behind a cheap desk looked up at him from some paperwork. "Can I help you?" She said in a slightly annoyed American accent.

Harry cleared his throat and said timidly, "I'm here to bail out Ginny Weasley." His statement almost sounded like a question.

The secretary rolled her eyes. "Next time, keep your girlfriend from starting fights in bars. Then, you won't be in this situation, okay?"

Harry was surprised to hear that Ginny started a fight, in a bar no less, but sadly was more worried about the fact that the secretary had referred to her as his girlfriend. He told the secretary so.

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Sure, Sparky." She opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out a sheet of paperwork. "Here. Fill this out." She grabbed an envelope off her desk and handed it to him, as well. "Put the 500 pounds in here, and I'll run it by the bank tonight."

"Okay. Thanks." Harry grabbed a pen off the desk and started writing.

Harry and Ginny walked away from the station. When the guards had let Ginny out of her cell, Ginny held her head high and left the police station with as much grace as she could muster. One of the guards had started to comment on how few fifteen year-old girls were sent to that station under assault charges, but was quickly silenced by a look from said fifteen year-old. Ginny had been silent the whole time, which extended to now, and Harry found the silence rather uncomfortable.

He thought he'd try to make conversation.

"So, I heard you started a fight in a bar."

Ginny stopped suddenly and turned to face him. She Glared at him, with a capital 'G'.

Perhaps that was not the way to start conversation.

"No, Harry, for your information, I most certainly did NOT start a fight in a bar."

Harry shoved his hands in his pockets. "Well, what did happen, then?"

Ginny held her glare for a moment, then sighed and looked down. She, also, put her hands in her pockets, and began her story.

"Ron and Hermione have been owling each other this summer, you know? Well, they must have gotten into some kind of row, (through letters, if you can believe that, she added, and Harry assured her he could, this was Ron and Hermione they were talking about, after all) because Ron made some excuse to Mum and ran off to some pub around here," she waved her hands around, "to sulk. I was worried about him, so I went looking, and in one of the pubs some older man... well, he started grabbing on me somewhere he shouldn't, that's all." Despite the warmth of the night, she shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. She continued walking. Harry followed her lead. After a moment, she dropped her confident demeanor and said in a sad, quiet voice, "You have no idea how horrible it makes you feel, being used like that. It's like you're...like you're nothing. Just there for entertainment."

Harry was stunned. He hadn't heard Ginny use that defeated tone of voice since the Chamber. He looked over at her, and saw that she was walking quickly, with her face down towards the pavement. She looked as if she was trying very hard not to think of the things that had happened to her that night.

She was right about one thing, though. Harry didn't know. All he could understand was that somehow, that man in the pub had broken confident and cool Ginny Weasley, a feat accomplished by no one, so he had thought. He wanted terribly to make her feel better. He decided to say the only thing that came to mind, which was,

"I'm so sorry, Ginny."

Tears filled Ginny's eyes as she suddenly stopped walking and wrapped her arms around Harry's middle. She started to cry in earnest.

Interestingly enough, for the first time that evening, Harry knew exactly what to do with himself, as he hugged Ginny and begun to scratch her back.

"Shh, Ginny, it's alright. It's over now." Ginny's tears begun to let up. "It's only a memory." Ginny half-laughed through her tears, and Harry smiled.

They turned and continued walking home, to the Burrow, in silence, arm in arm.


End file.
